Michael Cohen hit a legal wall in his battle against Donald Trump.
The Supreme Court has flatly dismissed Michael Cohen's lawsuit alleging retaliation by Donald Trump and former officials, denying him the chance for a review, Daily Caller reported.
Once a close confidant and personal attorney to former President Donald Trump, Michael Cohen has faced repeated legal setbacks following his falling out with the president. Cohen's lawsuit claimed that Trump, alongside former Attorney General William Barr and other officials, had him imprisoned in retaliation for his plans to publish a book critical of Trump.
However, the justices' refusal to review Cohen's appeal effectively upholds the decisions of lower courts. It leaves Cohen without the opportunity to reargue his case, which has been rejected at multiple judicial levels.
The Biden administration's Department of Justice weighed in earlier on the matter, suggesting that the Supreme Court bypass the case. This came alongside arguments from Trump's legal team that described Cohen's claims as baseless.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals earlier affirmed the dismissal of the lawsuit, which has kept Cohen’s legal struggles in a perpetual loop of rebuffs. This recent Supreme Court decision to not intervene signals a conclusive end to Cohen's pursuit of justice through this lawsuit.
In 2018, authorities sentenced Michael Cohen to three years in prison for charges that included campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. Although the pandemic shifted his sentence to home confinement in May 2020, the conditions of his release sparked further controversy.
After briefly sending Cohen back to prison, the judge ruled in July 2020 that officials had retaliated with his reimprisonment—prompted by his refusal to agree to publication restrictions—and ordered his return to home confinement. Authorities directly linked this particular phase of his incarceration to his planned publication criticizing Trump, which they wanted to curb.
Cohen had voiced his distress over the incident in his petition to the Supreme Court, stating, "As it stands, this case represents the principle that presidents and their subordinates can lock away critics of the executive without consequence."
Cohen’s legal battle's complexities continued to surface this year when he took the stand in March before a New York grand jury. His testimony was part of a broader case against Donald Trump led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Despite the complexities of his cases and connections to high-profile legal disputes involving Trump, the Supreme Court's latest decision underscores a challenging road ahead for Cohen in any further legal strategies he might consider.
With all judicial doors now seemingly closed on this front, Cohen's robust attempts at holding Trump and others accountable for alleged retaliation appear to be definitively curtailed.
With this Supreme Court ruling, Michael Cohen's legal avenues targeting former President Donald Trump have concluded, affirming once more the lower courts' stances that saw no merit in Cohen's accusations of retaliation. The storied legal journey underscores the significant barriers faced when challenging a former president and his administration.
